Dunkirk Movie Review

Dunkirk details the harrowing true story from World War 2 where the Allies were forced to retreat from France after the Germans had surrounded them. This shows how 300,000 soldiers were evacuated even as they were picked off one at a time.

While it’s not the best war movie I’ve ever seen, nor the best Christopher Nolan movie, Dunkirk is very solid. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time because you never really know what is going to happen or when. Almost every bullet fired made me jump. The movie is beautifully shot and well paced at an hour and 45 minutes long. There’s very little dialogue which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. There are some very good performances despite the lack of dialogue. The battle scenes, although infrequent and smaller scale than you might expect, are well done. The movie does a good job of immersing you into the battle, making you feel like you are there from the safety of your theater.

The movie has some issues, one of which has to do with the little dialogue. Because there is so little, there is no character development and it’s hard to get attached to anyone or root for anyone. People are killed and it doesn’t have an impact because we don’t know anything about them. I also don’t know that the movie does the best job of setting things up. It has a brief opening that kind of describes the situation, but not enough for those unfamiliar it.

All in all, Dunkirk is a good war movie that is worth a watch. It’s not as memorable (or violent) as something like Saving Private Ryan, but has plenty of good qualities. It’s an edge of your seat experience worthy of a 4/5.